


Somebody Loves You

by L0VEPACK



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Season/Series 07, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-20 22:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21288977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L0VEPACK/pseuds/L0VEPACK
Summary: If she's being honest, Teddy pretty much expected that Owen and Cristina wouldn't last. She didn't expect Cristina to move in with her after they broke up, but she's adjusting. And maybe, just maybe, she could get used to this.
Relationships: Teddy Altman/Cristina Yang
Comments: 17
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is going to be a multi-chapter fic and I've tagged it with everything that feels appropriate for what I have planned for it. Set around mid-to-late season 7, obviously diverges from canon. 
> 
> I'm really excited to tell this story about these two falling in love, slowly, with a lot of pining and cluelessness along the way. :)

Sometimes, Teddy sleeps poorly.

She hasn’t had many sleep problems lately. Seattle seems to be good for her in this regard, and she’s not really sure why. Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s being surrounded by colleagues she’s starting to think of as friends. Whatever the reason, she’s certainly not complaining about it. It beats waking up at odd hours every night only to crash for a brief hour when the sun comes up, or lying awake listening to whatever noises the building she’s in makes, or having nightmares.

Tonight is different, though. Tonight, Teddy is lying awake at one in the morning, because she’s hearing noises, and she can’t convince herself they aren’t real.

She lies on her back for a few minutes, listening. The sound of the rain isn’t unexpected, but there’s something underneath it, the sound of a motor running. That’s just enough noise to make her want to get up and check, so she pulls herself out of bed, groaning. She grabs her robe from the closet and throws it on over her nightgown. If there’s someone outside, it’s not going to do much to protect her, or keep her decent, but it’s better than nothing.

The noise persists, even getting a little louder as she walks through the house. Teddy wraps her robe tighter around herself as she walks to the kitchen, quietly, so she can still hear the motor under the sound of her footfalls. She sees a flash of headlights in her window for a moment and gets a glimpse of what she now realizes is Owen’s truck, pulling away from her house.

It’s an odd time of night for a visit. Odder still that Owen stopped by and didn’t even knock on her door. It’s troubling, especially considering Owen’s history of trauma. Driving to her house at one in the morning only to leave without saying hello certainly seems like erratic behavior. Teddy makes a mental note to ask him how he’s doing, and if that fails, to keep asking around until someone gives her a straight answer.

She hears a small rapping at her door, so tiny she dismisses it at first. It’s probably the wind, or the house creaking, even though it didn’t sound much like a creak. Actually, Teddy thinks, it’s probably just her imagination. The longing of her heart conjuring up a world where Owen did come back, and he’s knocking on her door now, and if she opens that door, she’ll find out he came by to confess his love. She rolls her eyes at her own fantasy. It’s laughable, and anyway, there wasn’t a knock.

Then she hears it again – louder, more insistent, almost frantic. She hears a muffled voice say, “Open up!” It sounds like a female voice, familiar in its tone and timbre, but about as distressed as the knocking.  
  
So, Teddy walks slowly to her door, takes a deep breath, and turns the knob. She opens it, letting in the Seattle rain, and some wind, and maybe a leaf or two. She takes in the sight before her, her eyes focusing on little details – the rain-drenched curls, the wet leather jacket, a duffel bag that she’s willing to bet was hastily packed.

It’s Cristina on her doorstep, shivering.

She doesn’t wait for Teddy to respond before pushing past her, dragging the duffel bag behind her. Teddy blinks at the space where Cristina was standing just a moment before, sighs to herself, and follows her back into the house. Cristina flops into one of the tall chairs at the little breakfast bar that Teddy found so charming when she first saw it.

“Okay,” Teddy says.

She’s about to make a sarcastic remark about Cristina just inviting herself in, when Cristina puts her head in her hands and starts to sob.

“Oh,” Teddy says, and then, “okay,” but gentler this time.

She lets Cristina cry for a moment while she tries to figure out what to do. She knows she’s level headed in a crisis, and this certainly seems like a crisis, at least for Cristina. She updates her mental note to check on Owen, changing it to a mental note to chew out Owen for just dumping Cristina outside her house at one in the morning without an explanation. Once that’s done, she thinks of a plan. She fills up her electric kettle and plugs it in, grabs a variety of teas that strike her as comforting, and places them in front of Cristina.

Cristina doesn’t lift her head.

Teddy doesn’t wait for her to respond to the tea selection before tugging at the sleeves of her jacket, trying to remove it. Cristina isn’t helping much, but she isn’t resisting, and so Teddy manages to get the wet material off her. Teddy drapes it over a chair, trying not to think about how it’s definitely dripping onto her hardwood floors, because this is a crisis of some kind and she doesn’t have time to worry about that.

Cristina finally lifts her head and looks at the teas.

“Pick one,” Teddy tells her.

“I don’t really drink tea,” Cristina says, sniffling and rubbing at her eyes. “I’m more of a coffee girl. I wouldn’t know what to pick.”

“If you don’t know what to pick, I can pick for you,” Teddy offers.

“I’m okay, really,” Cristina starts to say, but Teddy stops her.

“That’s bullshit,” Teddy says. Cristina raises her eyebrows. “Cristina Yang, it’s one in the morning, probably closer to two by now, and you’re soaking wet, and you just showed up at my house like this, and you clearly brought clothes with you like you’re expecting to stay. Whatever’s happening with you, you are clearly not okay. So, you’re going to pick a tea, or I’m going to pick one for you, and you’re going to drink it, and you’re going to tell me what the hell is going on.”

“This one looks okay,” Cristina says, voice wobbling a little.

“Great,” Teddy says, picking up the package. “This one’s nice,” she adds, giving Cristina a sympathetic smile.

Cristina laughs a little.

“What’s funny?” Teddy asks, as she pours hot water into the cup with the tea bag Cristina picked.

“You’re being nice to me, but in, like, the most aggressive and commanding way possible,” she says. Then she looks at Teddy, her eyes watering again. “Thank you.”

“Okay,” Teddy says, not really sure how to handle an emotional Cristina besides lecturing her and making her drink tea. “Um, here’s the tea you picked. I still don’t know what’s going on, so you should think about what you’re going to tell me while you drink it.”

Cristina takes a sip of her tea, then sets the mug down.

“Owen dumped me,” she says.

“Oh,” Teddy says.

It’s not really surprising. It was clear from the way that Owen rushed off without an explanation that he wasn’t in the mood to talk, and it makes sense to Teddy that he wouldn’t want to stick around to see Cristina like this after breaking up with her. She adds a mental note to be a little harsher on Owen when she does give him the lecture she has planned. She suppresses the tiny flare of hope she feels when she realizes that Owen is single now. It sputters out with little resistance, and she returns to the task of making Cristina feel better.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Teddy says, after a long pause.

“Don’t be,” Cristina says, sniffling again. “We were fighting all the time, and it was really bad, and honestly I don’t know how happy I was, by the time it all happened tonight. Or I guess last night, since it’s tomorrow morning, technically.”

“Did he kick you out?” Teddy asks.

“Not really, I kind of kicked myself out,” she explains, fiddling with the string on the tea bag. “I mean, once he said it was over, I didn’t want to be there with him anymore. Living in a house with him, after all that? God, I couldn’t stand another minute in that place,” she says, and she laughs bitterly.

“So he dropped you off here, because…”

“I asked him to,” Cristina says, like it’s obvious.

“Oh,” Teddy says. “Why not Meredith’s?”

“Um,” Cristina says, and she takes a sip of her tea, and then another sip. Suddenly the patterns on the mug become the most fascinating thing she’s ever seen.

“Okay, well, I guess it doesn’t matter now,” Teddy says, sighing. “You can stay here for a bit, yeah. Do you have enough clothes with you?”

“Yeah, I think they got a little wet though,” she says. “This bag isn’t really waterproof.”

“How exactly did you get this soaked? It’s not like you were outside my house for that long,” Teddy says.

“Owen and I had another fight, right before he drove me here,” Cristina explains.

“What was it about?” Teddy asks.

Cristina gives her a glare.

“Okay, I should know better than to ask, I guess,” Teddy says, sighing. “Um, if your clothes got wet, we can throw them in my dryer, and they should be good by the morning. I might have something you can sleep in. You shouldn’t stay in what you have on much longer, since those clothes are wet too. And maybe you should take a hot shower.”

“Yeah,” Cristina agrees. “That sounds really good right about now.”

“Great,” Teddy says, managing a small smile. “Okay, well, I’ll get the shower set up for you. I should have some spare towels,” she says, mostly to herself, and she starts to walk off in the direction of the bathroom.

“Dr. Altman?” Cristina calls after her.

“Yeah?” Teddy says, turning back to her.

“Okay, is it okay to call you Teddy while we’re not at work? Since I’m just kind of crashing on your couch or whatever,” Cristina says.

“Yeah, sure, that’s fine,” Teddy says. “Is that what you wanted to ask me?”

“No,” Cristina says, “I was going to ask – I mean, I just assumed that I can sleep on the couch, and that’s fine with me, but I didn’t ask, so – I just wanted to know where you want me to sleep.”

“You didn’t ask if you could stay here before you asked Owen to drop you off here. You didn’t ask when you let yourself in, either. And you’re asking now, because…”

“Look, I’m not trying to be rude,” Cristina snaps. “I’m just going through a lot of shit right now. I wasn’t thinking clearly when I just barged in here, but – I’m thinking a bit better now, and I don’t want to be rude to you, okay? So, I’m asking now.”

“Okay,” Teddy says. She runs a hand through her hair and sighs. “You can’t sleep on the couch, though.”

“I can’t?”

“Yeah, it’s really uncomfortable. You can sleep in my bed, though,” Teddy offers.

“Excuse me?”

The look on Cristina’s face tells Teddy exactly what she’s thinking Teddy just offered. Teddy flushes.

“No, no, I mean – I’ll take the couch, I can put up with it. You’re stressed, you’re my guest, and you’ll get a better night’s sleep if you take my bed instead of the couch. I don’t mind, really,” Teddy says, shrugging. “I’ve slept on worse.”

“Okay,” Cristina says. “Uh, thanks. You didn’t have to do that.”

“It’s fine,” Teddy says, sighing. “Um, I’ll finish setting up the shower for you, okay?”

“Teddy?” Cristina starts, as Teddy is about to leave again.

“Yeah?” she calls back, over her shoulder.

“Can I have some more tea?”

“Yeah, help yourself,” Teddy answers, smiling to herself and shaking her head. 

*******

Teddy sighs and rolls over on the couch. She wasn’t kidding when she told Cristina it was uncomfortable, and she’s already dreading being on her feet for hours at a time at work. She also wasn’t kidding about having slept on worse, though, and so she sighs and adjusts her pillow, vowing to tough it out for Cristina’s sake.

Teddy closes her eyes and listens to the rain, hoping it will help her to get to sleep. It sounds a little louder, she realizes, and different, and like it’s coming from another direction, almost inside the house. It takes a moment for her sleepy brain to realize that the sound she’s hearing isn’t just the rain. It’s the shower, still running.

She looks at her phone to check the time. Three in the morning. Cristina should be done showering by now. She should be sleeping peacefully on Teddy’s extremely comfortable mattress. Evidently, she’s still in the shower, and has been for at least an hour.

Teddy jumps up from the couch and practically runs to the bathroom.

“Cristina?” she calls out, knocking on the bathroom door.

She doesn’t get an answer, beyond the sound of the water still coming down. She pulls on the handle of the door. It’s locked, of course, and there’s still no response, not even when she knocks louder. She rattles the handle so hard she thinks it might break, but that does nothing. Teddy takes a deep breath.

“Yang, I’m coming in,” she yells, and she throws her body weight against the door.

The handle breaks. Teddy falls into the bathroom, steadying herself against the sink. There’s a lot of steam, and at first, she can’t see into the shower. Then enough of the steam clears that she can see Cristina through the glass. She’s sitting on the floor of the shower, fully clothed, letting the water run over her.

Teddy doesn’t hesitate. She opens the shower door and turns off the water. Cristina looks up at her blankly.

“Okay, I’m getting you out of here,” Teddy says, and she lifts Cristina in her arms.

Cristina allows her to carry her to her bedroom, where Teddy hastily grabs a spare nightgown and one of her old sweatshirts for good measure. Teddy looks at Cristina, who is now dripping water onto her bedroom floor, and sighs.

“Sorry,” Cristina blurts out.

“It’s okay,” Teddy says, glad to hear her talk. “We should get you into something else, though. Wet jeans are nobody’s friend. Do you mind if I – “

Teddy reaches a hand out to the hem of Cristina’s shirt. She expects Cristina to protest, to insist that she can undress herself and get into the borrowed clothes without Teddy’s help. Cristina’s small, nervous nod catches her off guard. Her eyes are watering again, and she’s biting her lip, and it actually hurts to look at her when she looks like this, like she doesn’t have any fight left in her.

“Owen got in my shower in his clothes once,” Cristina says, as Teddy starts to help her out of her wet things. “Shoes and everything.”

Teddy just hums in response. She gets Cristina out of her wet clothes in as dignified a manner as she can, then pulls the nightgown over Cristina’s head. Cristina takes the sweatshirt from her and pulls it over her head herself. Teddy picks up Cristina’s wet clothes and carries them to the dryer.

“Sorry about your bathroom door,” Cristina says, when Teddy returns.

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Teddy says, sighing. “I mean, relatively okay, in comparison to how not okay you could have been. You had me really worried.”

“I don’t really know what happened,” Cristina says. “I just kind of got in without thinking about it.”

Teddy doesn’t know what to say in response. She considers talking frankly with Cristina about responses to trauma, but she doesn’t know how far she’d get with that approach. Her adrenaline is still running high and she doesn’t trust herself to be patient with Cristina now. She doesn’t want to come off as angry when she’s just scared, especially when Cristina is clearly not doing well.

“You should get some sleep,” Teddy says.

Cristina nods, and starts to climb into Teddy’s bed. Teddy is about to return to the uncomfortable couch when a vision of Cristina from a few moments ago pops into her head. Remembering what Cristina looked like crumpled on her shower floor makes Teddy turn around and walk back into her bedroom.

“You know, on second thought, I’m staying here,” she says.

“Uh, you want me to take the couch?” Cristina says, blinking at Teddy.

“No, I – I’m going to stay here with you,” Teddy insists.

“Uh, okay,” Cristina says. She shakes her head like she’s trying to shake something off, then furrows her brow like she’s trying to figure something out. “So, we’ll share, then? I mean, it’s a little weird, I guess, but – well, I sleep with Meredith all the time. I mean, sometimes I sleep in her bed with her. So I guess that can work.”

“Okay,” Teddy says. She hops up onto the bed next to Cristina. “Thank you. It’ll make me feel better if I know we’re in the same room.”

“You just don’t want to sleep on the couch,” Cristina says, settling against the pillows. Her eyes are closed, but Teddy can see her lips forming a small smirk.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Teddy says, smiling to herself, relieved to see Cristina in a playful mood. “You got me.”

Cristina is the first to fall asleep. After a few minutes with her eyes closed, Teddy stirs a little, and opens her eyes to look at her phone and check the time. It’s almost four in the morning now, which means her hopes of getting a decent amount of sleep before work are pretty much gone. Teddy rolls back over and glances at Cristina’s sleeping face. She looks peaceful, her wet hair spread out on Teddy’s pillow, some of Teddy’s comforter tucked under her arm.

Teddy listens to the rain, and to the sound of Cristina’s breathing. She thinks about what she’s going to say to Owen when she sees him. She thinks about how long Cristina might need to stay with her while she figures out what to do. She wonders why Cristina didn’t think to go to Meredith first, and what the fight that Cristina had with Owen might’ve been about.

Teddy closes her eyes then, because there’s an unexpected warmth she feels when she looks at Cristina, and she’s definitely not thinking about that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's commented so far! I'm glad people are excited about this one.
> 
> In this chapter: bed sharing, secret sharing, Teddy swinging first and explaining why she's mad at Owen later, and some reflections on what it means to be on someone's side.

Teddy wakes up a little disoriented, confused about the body next to her for a moment until her eyes focus. She sees Cristina’s dark curls fanned out against her spare pillow, and Cristina’s face, still relatively peaceful, though her lips keep twitching, as if she’s dreaming. Teddy’s alarm didn’t wake her, which is unsurprising, since the gentle tone doesn’t wake most people. Evidently Cristina got hot in the night and kicked most of the covers off, so Teddy sees her bare legs – frankly, more of her bare legs than she’s ever seen, which makes her suddenly embarrassed.

“Hey, wake up,” she says, gently shaking Cristina.

“Hmm?” Cristina stretches and looks at her. “Oh, is it morning already?”

“Yeah, and I’m not waiting around for you if you decide to make us late,” Teddy says, turning away from Cristina and hopping down from the bed.

“How’d you get up?” Cristina says, yawning, as she follows Teddy to the kitchen. “I didn’t even hear an alarm, just the birds outside.”

“That was my alarm,” Teddy says, as she starts to make coffee.

“Hey,” Cristina says, “can you promise me you won’t talk about last night with anyone? Especially Owen.”

“Owen dropped you off here,” Teddy says. “I think he already knows about last night.”

“Yeah, but – the crying, and the shower, and you helping me into bed,” Cristina says. “I just – I don’t want anyone to think I’m helpless, you know? I’m not helpless.”

“You need a little help sometimes, though,” Teddy says, turning on the coffeepot. “Everyone does, no matter how good they are.”

“Sure,” Cristina says, rolling her eyes. “But seriously, don’t tell anyone.”

“You have my word,” Teddy says. “You want coffee, right?”

“Yeah,” Cristina says, wandering around Teddy’s kitchen aimlessly.

“I take mine black, but I have guests sometimes, so I do have sugar, in the cabinet to your left,” Teddy says. “If you want milk, there’s some in the fridge.”

“Yeah, I’ll probably want some,” Cristina says, and moves towards the fridge.

Teddy expects to hear the sound of the fridge door opening, but she doesn’t. Maybe Cristina’s going to wait until the coffee is done before she gets out the milk, she thinks. She listens to the coffee dripping into the pot for a moment. When it finally stops, she pours two mugs of coffee, then turns toward Cristina, ready to ask her whether she’d like cereal, or whether she’d prefer for Teddy to make something for breakfast, like maybe eggs, or even oatmeal if cold cereal isn’t her thing.

That’s when Teddy notices her stopped in front of the fridge, and her stomach flips.

She’d forgotten about the photos. There’s a whole collection of them, but the one Cristina’s staring at intently shows Teddy with two other women. One of them, on Teddy’s right, is smiling and looking directly at the camera. The other is laughing hard at something, leaning her head against Teddy’s shoulder. Teddy has an arm around each of them, and she’s smiling too, but more at the woman on her left than at anything else.

It took a long time for Teddy to put any of these pictures up, after. When she finally did, she’d put up all of them featuring the woman on the right, as a tribute. She hadn’t thought too much about who else was in them when she’d done it.

“Oh, uh,” Teddy begins, but Cristina cuts her off.

“This picture,” Cristina says, gesturing towards the Polaroid photograph on Teddy’s fridge, stuck to it with a magnetic frame. “When is it from?”

“From – a long time ago,” Teddy says, feeling dizzy. She hands Cristina her mug in a daze.

“Before the army?” Cristina asks.

“Well, it would – it would have to be, wouldn’t it,” Teddy says.

“Right, Owen told me,” Cristina says. “About your friend, with the birds. Uh, I’m sorry. For your loss, I mean.”

“Yeah,” Teddy says. “Uh, thank you.”

“So…that’s her?” Cristina asks, pointing to the woman on Teddy’s right. “I mean, she’s in all the pictures, so it has to be her, right?”

“Yeah,” Teddy says, “that’s her.”

“Who’s this, then?” Cristina asks, tapping the photo. “Is she still –“

“Alive?” Teddy asks.

“Well, I wasn’t going to say it,” Cristina says, looking at Teddy.

“I think so,” Teddy says, taking a sip from her mug. “I mean, last I heard, yes, but – we don’t talk much, any more.”

“Rough breakup?”

Teddy chokes on her coffee.

“Sorry,” Cristina says. “I shouldn’t have assumed, it’s just – well, you looked close.”

“It’s fine,” Teddy says, coughing.

They stand in silence for another moment, looking at the photos together. Teddy takes a deep breath.

“It was rough,” she says. “It was really rough. Grief – I mean, it makes people do funny things, and – it was rough. And then, even when I could talk about the grief, I couldn’t talk about the breakup, for a really long time, so I just didn’t. And now I’m talking about it, to you,” Teddy says, laughing a little. “Sorry, I just never expected you’d be the first person – you know, someone I’d…”

“Come out to?” Cristina suggests.

“Yeah,” Teddy says. “Um, anyway – breakfast might be a good idea.”

“Oh, yes, I’m starving,” Cristina says excitedly, opening the fridge. “What do you have?”

“Well, I think we don’t have time for eggs, so – how do you feel about cereal?”

“Cereal’s great,” Cristina says.

Teddy relaxes, grateful for the change in conversation topic. At the same time, she thinks, crunching on a spoonful of the high protein cereal she’s come to love, she’s pretty grateful she got to talk to someone about this at all.

***

They make it to work on time, but just barely. Teddy chastises Cristina for making them almost late, then feels a little guilty, because she knows she spent the morning distracted by their conversation. Cristina had made her promise not to tell anyone about the way she’d taken care of her, but she never asked Cristina not to tell anyone about the woman in the photo. She thinks about asking Cristina not to talk about it, but decides against it, figuring that another bisexual attending wouldn’t be that much of a shock to anyone. Being able to be open about it, in theory, is almost a luxury, and on some level, it might feel kind of nice.

Teddy loses her train of thought when she sees Owen. She remembers her plan to talk to Owen about the night before. Unfortunately, Teddy’s entire morning is booked, and a multiple car pile-up has Owen pretty busy himself. It feels like hours before she can even take a breath. It doesn’t help that Cristina keeps giving her knowing looks – or what she thinks might be knowing looks. Maybe Teddy is paranoid, but she feels like Cristina’s glances have something to do with knowing she’s had a girlfriend before, and maybe feeling some strange power over Teddy as a result. When they part ways, it’s a relief, and when Teddy bumps into Owen, it’s almost a relief, too.

“You need to tell me what happened with Cristina,” Teddy says, as soon as she gets Owen alone.

“Here?” Owen asks, looking around.

“Yes, here,” Teddy says.

“We’re at work,” Owen begins, but Teddy holds up her hand.

“Cristina Yang is living in my house, sleeping in my bed, and it’s impacting my work. And her work, which has a direct impact on my work when we work together. And you’re the one who brought her there, and I only know her side of the story, so I want to hear yours.” Teddy fixes him with a look.

“She’s sleeping in your bed?” Owen asks.

“Yeah, the couch is uncomfortable,” Teddy explains.

“And you’re sleeping where, exactly?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Teddy says, as casually as she can manage. She remembers her promise to Cristina, and vows not to give him any more details of the previous night, no matter how mad at Owen she gets. “Look, I just want to know what happened, from your point of view, that led to this situation that Cristina’s in, and that I’m in. I think you owe me that much.”

“We argued,” Owen says, after a pause. “We argue all the time, and I guess I’d just had it, you know? She hardly put in any effort in our marriage, she didn’t think about our family –“

“What family?” Teddy asks, crossing her arms.

“Yeah, exactly,” Owen continues. “That’s exactly the problem. She doesn’t – Cristina doesn’t understand – things. Look, I just got frustrated with her, and – I said some things. And then she said some things, and then I told her I didn’t see a future with her. Then she packed her things and started walking towards my truck.”

“Did she know where she was going?”

“No, she just wanted to get out. And I said fine, that’s fine by me, but where am I taking you? And then she told me to bring her to you.” Owen shakes his head. “And then – well, I said some additional things, which led to another argument, but that one was outside, so – okay, it doesn’t really matter about the details, but what I said must’ve pissed her off pretty badly, and by the time I got her to you, she wouldn’t even look at me. And that’s just ridiculous. That’s not how you argue with someone.”

“How so?” Teddy asks.

“It’s not how adults argue. Adults don’t give someone the silent treatment because someone, in an obvious moment of frustration, insinuated – well, it doesn’t matter what, because it’s just not what adults do. I don’t get it. I don’t get her. I tried – God, believe me, I tried, but – she’s immature,” Owen says, shaking his head and laughing a little to himself. “You know she eats cereal for dinner half the time? She’s like – she thinks she knows everything, but she doesn’t know anything. Just like a child.”

Teddy doesn’t realize what she’s doing until it’s too late. One minute she’s clenching her fists in anger. The next minute, she’s swinging one of those fists into the side of Owen’s face.

She’s surprised by the fact that Owen doesn’t block her punch. Instead, he takes the full force of it, grunting in pain and clutching at his eye, which is evidently about where Teddy’s fist made contact. He looks at her, mouth open slightly, clearly in shock. Teddy is in shock, too, but she immediately starts trying to make the situation right.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she says, because she is sorry, though apparently she’s also angry enough for something like this to happen. “Does it hurt?” she asks, even though the answer is obvious.

“Yeah,” Owen says, nodding, hand still over his face. “Yeah, it hurts.”

“I’ll get an ice pack,” she says.

Teddy walks down the hallway, and then, when she’s sure no one important is watching, breaks into a sprint. As she runs, she tells herself that she’ll tell someone to grab the ice pack for her so she can get back to Owen. Someone who she has the authority to instruct – that’s all that matters. Anyone will do, because this is a crisis.

Unfortunately, the first person she sees is Cristina Yang.

“Get me an ice pack,” Teddy blurts out, still panting from her sprint.

“What?” Cristina blinks at her.

“Just get me an ice pack, as fast as you can,” she says, and then starts sprinting in the other direction.

“Where am I bringing it?” Cristina yells as Teddy takes off, but Teddy doesn’t even respond.

As soon as she makes it back to Owen, she feels the color leaving her face. Owen isn’t clutching his eye any more, but it’s already starting to bruise, and it looks bad. Owen is grimacing and shaking his head. When he sees Teddy, he gives her what looks a little like a smile, like he’s trying to downplay the awkwardness that’s inevitably about to follow.

“You, uh, got me good,” he says.

“Guess I don’t know my own strength,” she says, laughing nervously.

“No,” Owen says, staring at her. “No, you definitely do. You knew exactly how much force to put behind that punch to make it hurt, and how much you’d need to back off to make it gentle. So you obviously wanted to hurt me.”

“Sorry,” Teddy says again. “Someone should be coming with an ice pack. Soon.”

“What I want to know,” Owen says, as though she hadn’t mentioned the ice pack at all, “is what made you want to hurt me that bad.”

“I don’t know,” Teddy says.

“You don’t know? You punched me. We have a history, and I know it’s complicated, and I know there’s a lot there that’s – well, confusing. And upsetting. Not easy to talk about,” he adds, his expression softening a little. “But I know you. You’re not the type of person who would just swing at a guy without reason. What I was saying about me and Cristina gave you a reason, so I want to know what that reason is, so I can understand you.”

Teddy is about to open her mouth and say something when Cristina runs up to her, ice pack in hand.

“Okay, I found you, not that you made it easy,” she says, panting. “Here’s the – holy shit,” Cristina says, as she takes in the sight of Owen, and Owen’s rapidly forming black eye.

“Hi,” Owen manages.

“Guess I know what the ice pack’s for,” Cristina says, a hint of amusement in her voice. “What happened to you?”

“Well,” Teddy begins, but Owen interrupts her.

“Patient didn’t like me,” he says.

“Hmm, can’t imagine why,” Cristina says, giving him a large, fake smile. “I’ll see you later, Dr. Altman,” she says to Teddy. She turns to leave.

“You didn’t have to cover for me,” Teddy says, when Cristina is gone. “I punched you. That was wrong.”

“I thought it might complicate things if Cristina knew the truth,” Owen says, shrugging.

“How would that complicate anything?” Teddy asks.

“I don’t know,” Owen says. “I just feel like it might.”

Teddy sighs.

“Okay, well, I have a surgery, but – are you going to be okay?”

“I’m fine,” Owen insists. “Go. Your patients need you more.”

Teddy nods at him, then turns to leave. She takes a few steps forward, then pauses, because something’s eating at her. Owen is right about the punch – she wouldn’t have hit him if she hadn’t been angry, and she wouldn’t have hit him so hard if she hadn’t meant it. She stands there for a minute, thinking about Owen’s words, and how Cristina had come to her for help, and how Cristina had cried in her kitchen, and what bothered her so much about the whole situation.

“You good?” Owen asks.

“She’s not a child,” Teddy says.

“Excuse me?”

“She’s not a child,” Teddy repeats, turning around to face him. “I think that’s it – that’s what bothered me so much about what you said. Cristina is a lot of things, and she has a lot to learn, and yeah, sometimes she’s immature in how she handles things, especially being told that she’s wrong, but she’s not a child. And something about you calling her a child just – I don’t know, it just really bugged me.”

“Oh,” Owen says. He adjusts the ice pack.

“I get frustrated with her too, but – it’s different. It’s like – I want to teach her, and sometimes I can’t teach her, but I know she can be taught, I just don’t always know how to teach her. But I’m getting there. You – you want to change her, and she won’t change, and somehow you think that means she’s failing, but when I want to teach her, and I can’t, I think that means I’m failing, and I think that’s the difference,” Teddy explains.

“Okay,” Owen says. “Good talk, I guess.”

“I have to go, for real this time. Again, I’m sorry,” she says.

“But you still think I’m wrong about Cristina,” Owen replies.

“Yes,” Teddy says, turning to leave. She stops, spins back towards him. “Yes, I think – I think you’re very wrong. As your friend, I’m telling you, I think you’re kind of the asshole, in this situation. And I’m also kind of the asshole, since I punched you. But that’s an asshole I’m willing to be.”

Owen laughs a little at that. Teddy smiles.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m also a very busy asshole, so…”

“Go,” Owen says. “You’re a busy asshole, I’m a tough asshole, I’ll be fine.”

***

That night, Teddy showers. She gets ready for bed. When she walks into her bedroom, she finds Cristina already under the covers.

“Oh,” she says. “So, you’re going to just sleep here tonight?”

“You said the couch was uncomfortable,” Cristina says.

“Well, that was last night, when you were crying, and soaking wet, and when I felt a lot of sympathy for your situation,” Teddy says.

“You don’t feel sympathy for me now?”

Teddy thinks about her altercation with Owen.

“No, I still do,” she says slowly. “I just don’t really want to take the couch again.”

“You didn’t actually take the couch last night,” Cristina points out. “You shared this bed with me. You could do that again, if you want.”

“You – don’t mind?” Teddy asks, hesitantly.

“Why would I – what, because I know you like women? You honestly think – look, I sleep with Meredith all the time, and she’s never tried anything, so why would you?” Cristina says. She pauses. “Also, I need you to forget what I just said about Meredith, immediately.”

“Okay, I can do that,” Teddy says.

She starts to climb into the bed next to Cristina, when suddenly, she stops. Cristina notices, and gives her a questioning look. Teddy finishes climbing into the bed and collapses against the pillows. She looks at Cristina, who looks back at her, frowning.

“It wasn’t a patient who hit Owen,” Teddy says. “It was me.”

“What?” Cristina asks, eyes wide.

“I hit Owen,” Teddy says. “He covered for me anyway, because I’m his friend. But I thought you should know.”

“Why?” Cristina asks, closing her eyes and snuggling into the pillow.

“I – I don’t know,” Teddy says, feeling shy. Suddenly, she doesn’t want to tell Cristina her reasons. “I don’t know, I just got really mad at him,” she says instead, “and it just kind of happened. I feel pretty awful about it.”

“Okay,” Cristina says. She furrows her brow, but she doesn’t open her eyes.

“Don’t tell him I told you, though,” Teddy says.

“I’m not really talking to him much at all right now,” Cristina says. “So I won’t say anything. Though I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me.”

“We don’t have to tell each other everything, just because we’re living together now,” Teddy says, defensively.

Cristina hums in response. Teddy sighs and turns out the light, then curls up next to Cristina and closes her eyes. She’s very tired, so tired that she doesn’t think it’ll take too long at all for her to fall asleep. Just as she feels herself drifting off, she hears Cristina’s voice.

“Hey,” Cristina mumbles, “we don’t have to tell each other everything, but just so you know, I’m bisexual too.”

Teddy feels her heart beating faster.

“I – what?” She opens her eyes and looks at Cristina.

“Yeah,” Cristina says, looking Teddy directly in the eye. “Me too.”

“Oh,” Teddy says, “uh –“

“You don’t use that word?” Cristina asks, propping herself up with her elbow.

“No, it’s fine, I just – why are you telling me this?” Teddy asks.

“Why did you tell me you hit Owen?” Cristina counters.

“I don’t –“

“Don’t say you don’t know,” Cristina says. “You’ve said that too much.”

“Okay,” Teddy says, sighing.

“Okay, listen. It’s late. We should get some sleep now. I told you I’m bisexual because I didn’t want you to feel alone. There, now you know, and now we can rest,” Cristina says, flopping down on her pillow and closing her eyes.

“That’s why I told you I hit Owen,” Teddy says, closing her eyes too. “That’s also kind of why I hit Owen.”

“To make me feel less alone?” Cristina snorts. “How?”

“Look, I don’t want you to get hurt, and I don’t want you to fail. I don’t want to fail you. Whatever you think of me, I am on your side,” Teddy says. “I mean, I want you to succeed. Really. Maybe I don’t show it well, so I’m trying to show it now.”

“By hitting Owen,” Cristina says.

“Yeah, well. It’s a work in progress,” Teddy says.

Cristina laughs. It’s not mocking. It’s not gentle, but Teddy can’t really imagine Cristina laughing gently, under any circumstances. It’s a laugh that makes Teddy feel like they’re sharing a joke, like maybe Cristina is on Teddy’s side, too, whatever that might mean.


End file.
